The Bell

When historian and archaeologist Dr Elin Rowe returns to Cornwall following the death of her father, Matthew, she inherits more than his unfinished research. Hidden among his papers are fragments of a mystery stretching back nearly fifteen hundred years-a mystery buried beneath the water, stone and legends of St Nectan's Glen.

At its heart is a bell.

For centuries, stories have gathered around the Glen. Nectan became a saint surrounded by miracles. Two mysterious Victorian women became the ghostly Grey Ladies. Practical markings were transformed into sacred symbols. An ancient burial shifted location with every retelling. And somewhere along the way, the memory of an ordinary man became something extraordinary.

Elin begins pulling the stories apart.

Her investigation carries her back to the sixth century, where Nectan, Rhian and Cador struggle with faith, survival and the dangerous waters of the Glen; into Victorian Cornwall, where antiquarians, poets and storytellers record-and reshape-what they believe they have discovered; and finally into the present, where archaeology may expose what centuries of folklore have concealed.

But the deeper Elin digs, the less certain the past becomes.

A fragment of silver. An ancient oak. Forgotten watercourses. A mysterious bronze object buried beneath the Glen. Human remains. Contradictory manuscripts. And a warning that seems to echo across the centuries:

THE WATER REMEMBERS FIRST.

Each discovery appears to bring Elin closer to the truth, yet every answer creates another possibility. The legends are not entirely true-but neither are they simply inventions. Stories have been altered, misunderstood, protected and embellished by generations of people who believed they were preserving something worth remembering.

Then Elin faces a question more difficult than whether the legends are true.

How much of the past do we have the right to disturb simply because we want an answer?

As archaeology, history and folklore begin to converge, she must decide whether solving the mystery is worth destroying the very thing that has preserved it.

Moving between the distant past, Victorian Cornwall and the modern day, The Bell: A Tale of St Nectan's Glen is an atmospheric historical mystery about memory, belief and the creation of legend.

It is a story about the difference between what happened and what survives.

Because sometimes a legend is not true.

Sometimes it is not false.

Sometimes, after centuries of telling and retelling, some of it probably is.